There was plenty to talk about after Mississippi State’s spring game, including the wide receivers, kicking game and the defense. The Clarion-Ledger’s Courtney Cronin and Michael Bonner break it all down here.

Game Ball: Gavin Collins — The freshman singled to plate the game-winning run in the bottom of the tenth with two outs. He also made the game-saving tag at the plate in the top of the ninth. It preserved a 2-2 ballgame.

Lame Ball: Will Jamison — The Ole Miss right fielder tried to catch Wes Rea’s blooper on the fly. He missed and the ball got by him allowing Alex Detz to score from first to tie the game at 5-5.

]]>http://blogs.clarionledger.com/msu/2014/04/12/gavin-collins-john-cohen-postgame-after-walk-off-win-against-ole-miss/feed/0Extra Innings: Ole Miss 6, MSU 1http://blogs.clarionledger.com/msu/2014/04/11/extra-innings-ole-miss-6-msu-1/
http://blogs.clarionledger.com/msu/2014/04/11/extra-innings-ole-miss-6-msu-1/#commentsSat, 12 Apr 2014 03:02:25 +0000http://blogs.clarionledger.com/msu/?p=20478Read More]]>Game Ball: Errol Robinson — The freshman tallied two hits and scored twice from the seventh spot in the lineup. He also made a number of web gems in the field.

Lame Ball: Mississippi State’s offense — The Bulldogs have now scored 10 runs in their last five games. MSU tallied 10 hits and had the leadoff runner on in six of the nine innings, but scored only once.

Fat Lady Sang: Bot 8 — Wes Rea lined out to second with two runners on base to end the eighth. Ole Miss tacked on one in the ninth to make it 6-1.

Big Number: 13,224 — The attendance Friday night of 13,224 was the seventh largest crowd ever to watch an on-campus baseball game. It was also the largest Friday-night crowd in program history.

Stat to Know: Seven of Ole Miss’ 13 hits came on the first strike the hitter saw.

]]>http://blogs.clarionledger.com/msu/2014/04/11/extra-innings-ole-miss-6-msu-1/feed/0Mississippi State spring game rostershttp://blogs.clarionledger.com/msu/2014/04/11/mississippi-state-spring-game-rosters/
http://blogs.clarionledger.com/msu/2014/04/11/mississippi-state-spring-game-rosters/#commentsFri, 11 Apr 2014 22:21:38 +0000http://blogs.clarionledger.com/msu/?p=20475Read More]]>It’ll be first-team vs. first-team on Saturday. Mississippi State released its spring game rosters on Friday. It basically is the first-team offense and second-team defense against the first-team defense and second-team offense.

The game kicks off at Davis Wade Stadium at noon on Saturday. It will be rebroadcast on CSS at 3 p.m.

What They’re Saying: I think in the Vanderbilt series we showed we can score some runs. Against Arkansas we showed we can score some runs. I think playing at home helps certainly and I think our kids being comfortable helps. – Mississippi State coach John Cohen

What We’re Saying: In case you missed the “Step Brothers” metaphor, for many fans this is the biggest series of the year. Mississippi State hosts Ole Miss on Super Bulldog Weekend. On Saturday MSU will attempt to set the on-campus attendance record for a baseball game.

A three-game sweep at LSU took away some of that momentum. The Bulldogs tried to resurrect the good vibes with a walk-off win against Southern Miss on Tuesday.

Big Arm: Chris Ellis — The righty has allowed one run or less in six of his eight starts this season. He has allowed 10 earned runs all season in 48 innings. Although against Alabama on March 28, he allowed six runs in two innings.

Big Bat: Will Allen — Allen leads the Rebels with 14 doubles and 38 RBIs. He is second in home runs (5), hits (47), average (.346) and slugging (.559).

What’s at Stake: Mississippi State climbed eight spots in the RPI after losing three to LSU. Ole Miss boasts a top-10 RPI. Taking at least 2 of 3 would help the Bulldogs’ postseason resume.

Mississippi State received new jerseys to commemorate Super Bulldog Weekend on the diamond as well as new threads for the season-opener in football. The Clarion-Ledger’s Courtney Cronin and Michael Bonner takes a look at them, while breaking down Super Bulldog Weekend in Starkville.

De’Runnya Wilson’s first year at Mississippi State is finally finishing. It began with football in August. Then transitioned to basketball in January. Now with spring practice concluding, he’ll finally have some down time.

“I’m feeling great man. It’s over now but the spring went great like coach Mullen said,” Wilson said. “This is one of the best, out of six years, that we have had. I just feel pumped up for the fall to come.”

Wilson played 20 games in his freshman seasons — 13 on the gridiron and seven on the hardwood. He caught 26 passes for 351 yards for Dan Mullen. He scored six points and grabbed 11 rebounds for Rick Ray.

The power forward turned his focus to being a wide receiver toward the end of the basketball season. He wasn’t on the bench for MSU’s season finale or the Southeastern Conference basketball tournament in Atlanta.

“It really wasn’t a transition, for real. I know we’ve got to work out here. It’s a difference,” Wilson said. “Basketball, you’ve got to be organized a lot. You’ve got to know the little things. In football, you’ve just got to work hard and have a mentally tough mindset, go out there and be tough and physical in every part.”

For now, Wilson is focused on football. He won’t comment of he’s Mississippi State’s version of a one-and-done on the basketball court.

From the start Ray has said Wilson’s future is in football. The freshman had the best first year of any wide receiver since Chad Bumphis in 2009. Bumphis left the program as its all-time leader in receiving yards (2,270) and touchdown catches (24).

This spring Wilson believes he took the next step to follow in those footsteps. He and quarterback Dak Prescott, appear to be on the same page.

“Coming out of my breaks, the ball’s going to be there,” Wilson said. “He puts it there by the time I turn my head around.”

Dan Mullen shared a much different tone with reporters on Thursday than he did a week ago. Mullen joked about giving away free beer at Saturday’s spring game to guarantee his goal of 30,000 fans attending. He counted 11 lineman who didn’t participate in the spring due to injury, as Kaleb Eulls walked by the coach said, “Like him.” And there was even another photobomb. This time it was Josh Robinson who bombed Mullen. (See video above)

“I think we had a really good spring. I appreciate effort,” Mullen said. “I think our guys came out with great effort.”

Mullen said the team had an “unbelievable” practice on Tuesday. That carried over into Thursdays. It was one of the most physical practices of the spring. Richie Brown left with what appeared to be an injured jaw. He came on a blitz and running back Josh Robinson exploded upward on a block. Robinson made contact near Brown’s facemask. The linebacker left practice and did not return. He watched the conclusion from the sideline.

“Our focus is on our job. Don’t let chippy become the focus,” Mullen said. “Let chippy lead us to playing at a higher level.”

Saturday all but wraps up the spring. Mullen said the spring game will help younger players more than anyone.

“What we get out of it is put young players in a lot of situations in front of a crowd they’ve never experienced,” Mullen said. “We have to have 30,000 people there. That’s important.

“To do that we talked about it as a staff today. There’s free beer at the spring game.”

Then Mullen paused, smiled, “Just kidding. Hey every national (media member) just booked a flight to get down her for a spring game. There’s going to be 60,000 standing outside the gate.”

But even after the joking, Mullen returned to the importance of the crowd.

“The key to the spring is have the crowd. Is having a game-like atmosphere for a lot of young players,” Mullen said. “To get out there and have to look around and the stadium is full and if they drop a ball they’re going to be embarrassed and no girls are going to talk to them that night.”

Mullen wouldn’t comment on the roster. He just said they hope to split the roster to make an entertaining game for fans.

“If you want to wear maroon sit on the home side,” Mullen said. “If you want to wear white sit on the visiting side. Pick your team.”

But even then he still wasn’t quite done joking.

“The losing team, make sure show up and clean up the stadium at 9:30 Sunday morning with the losing players,” Mullen said.